Tom Hanks won an Academy Award for his portrayal of gay lawyer Andrew Beckett, who is fired from his Philadelphia law firm after contracting AIDS. In an effort to reclaim his dignity before his death, he sues the firm for discrimination and hires a rival lawyer, the homophobic Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), as his legal counsel. In this 1993 film Rolling Stone called "an emotional powerhouse," Miller overcomes his prejudices, and their unlikely partnership becomes a friendship.